Abstract The potential protective effects of three flavones (chrysin, apigenin and luteolin) against oxidative injury induced by H2O2 or CCI4 on human hepatocytes were evaluated in our paper. The hepatocytes were exposed to one of three flavones at 20, 40 or 60 mumol/L for 30 min and then injured by H2O2 or CCI4 for 1.5 h or 6 h. Biochemical assays showed that pretreatment of hepatocytes with three flavones had protective effects against oxidative injury, which were indicated by the improvement in cell viability, increased content of reduced glutathione in cells, reduction in lactate dehydrogenase leakage into culture medium and decreased formation of malondialdehyde in cells. alpha-Tocopherol, as reference, also had hepatoprotective effect, but its effectiveness was less than that of luteolin. It was shown that the order of hepatoprotective effect of three flavones on human hepatocytes was as follows: luteolin> apigenin> chrysin, which indicated strongly a clear structure-activity relationship between the numbers of hydroxyl group in the ring B of three flavones and their hepatoprotective effect.